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^^^ These are “my why.”

My background is editorial. I’m both a writer and a certified professional photographer; my work has appeared in newspapers and magazines nationwide as both a staff member and a freelancer. My editors used to call me a “twofer” because they could send me as the writer and photog.

Storytelling is a rhetorical mode that not many students are familiar with. It’s not something we use much in high school.

When my two kids were going through the college application process, I was working both as a freelance feature writer and photographer for the New Orleans Advocate,

and I was also the Lead Faculty for Communications, teaching undergraduates in COMM and English.

My kids, my kids’ friends, and my friends’ kids were all bringing me their college application essays. They were all making the same mistakes. That’s how I got involved in this work.

In 2023, I published a book and won the Loudoun (Virginia) Chamber Small Business Award.

In 2024, I completed 16 graduate-level hours in college admissions and career planning at the University of California, Berkeley, and became a certified Maxwell DISC consultant and trainer.

The Student/Career Report assessment lists potential careers where a student’s strengths and interests might best serve them. I spend time talking with students about pursuing these interests before we start looking for strong colleges and universities that offer those programs.

Most academically qualified students come to me with one of two things: a list or an essay.

Students who come to me with an essay ask, “Will you edit this for me?” The problem with will you edit this for me, is that editing is the last step in the process. The college application essay is academic writing, and academic writing is a technical skill. While most students have mastered the five-point “hamburger” persuasive rhetorical mode in high school, they haven’t yet learned that the persuasive rhetorical mode is not the only rhetorical mode used in academic writing — and the catch-22 is that they likely will not learn this until they get to college, but first they have to get in!

I break down academic writing at the undergraduate level for high school students. I give them tools to make this work easier, so they never sit down to an essay assignment again and stare at a blank page.

Students who come to me with a list often use words like “safety school.” I explain why I use words like “likely target, reach, unlikely.”

I use software that aggregates more than 30 years’ worth of admissions data. The software shows students where they stand relative to the larger pool of applicants, especially in this era of grade inflation. This is how we balance and strategize their list of schools they’ll apply to.

Unlike a photograph, a feature story, or even a college application essay, the numbers tell the story in this process. In a holistic admissions process, no single factor determines admission. A 6 percent acceptance rate does not equal a 6 percent chance of admission. The math is not cumulative. Applying to more highly selective schools does not increase a student’s chances of admission at any of them.

The college application process is a part-time job for students; it quickly becomes a full-time summer job for those who aspire to apply to more than one highly selective college or university (admissions rates below 30 percent, for example), just in writing the essays alone.

For most families, purchasing a college education is the third-largest expense after buying a home and saving for retirement.

My goal is to turn an admissions officer into an advocate through a college application essay, because when all other things are equal on paper, the essay is the one thing students have complete control over and can set them apart from tens of thousands of other applicants.

How do I do this? By showing students what I call The Steps in the RIGHTING Process; we make students jump off the page.

A college degree only yields a return on investment if the student graduates. Yet in 2025, one in four college freshmen did not return for their sophomore year.

Questions? Please schedule a Parent/Student Discovery session here.

To-Do:

Finalize building your college list; carefully cull this list, keeping acceptance rates in mind; see book suggestion below for additional help

Fill in all the details of your Common App

Low-income students: request application or testing fee waivers via high school counselor

Compile a list of all supplemental essays; begin writing

Focus first on compl…

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• I promised to hand you 30 percent of your essay.

• “All roads lead to outline.” This is your outline for a narrative essay.

• Fifty percent of your work is done in the freewriting step.

• Don’t try to “write” a lede!

• Don’t try to “write” a rough draft.

We’re going to pull your “lede” out of your freewriting exercises, and usually this happens after many freewriting exercises in the process. Leave the lede blank for now and focus on your freewriting exercises. Trust me, that’s where all the magic happens. 😊

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Parents and students can find key data points to compare schools, assess admissions chances, and make informed college decisions by using the Common Data Set.

The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the…

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This is a video from a live workshop in 2022; we used the Virginia Tech prompts as examples; some of these prompts have since changed, but Virginia Tech’s motto remains “Ut Prosim.”

It’s paramount that students understand the mission of the school that they are applying to, especially when writing supplemental and/or “Why Us?” essays. Virginia Tech is a…

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The “Why Us?” essay is one of the most important college essays that you will write. Colleges accept a limited number of students every year, so they want to ensure that admitted students have a genuine interest in their school. Of course, the fact that you're filling out an application form and writing all of the admission essays tells them that you want to attend the school, but this essay is supposed to tell them why.

Many students apply to colleges due to name recognition, ranking lists, or peer pressure. Others are drawn to specific colleges because they are genuinely interested in particular programs or courses offered by the institution or because the school and the student share common values. The admissions committee wants to make sure that you fit into the latter category because it means that you are more likely to thrive socially and academically.

For your “Why Us?” essay to be strong, it needs to show the admissions board that you understand the school's values, culture, curriculum, and the opportunities or experiences that it has to offer. The person reading your essay should feel like you have already spent time picturing yourself on their campus or in the classroom, and they should feel that you are excited about that possibility.

Visit the campus when possible. Spend some time on the website. Do not limit yourself to the admissions and undergraduate programs page. Instead, take a look at the online catalog, social programs, and even the course schedule, if available.

The aim is to find out what sets this school apart from the others you’ve applied to. Your essay should discuss precise details about at least one of the following:

• Courses & Programs

• Campus Culture

• Events, Activities, & Clubs

• Latest News About College & Its Achievements

• Extracurriculars

• Internships & CoOps

• Mission Statement/Values

If you have questions about the programs or if you feel that the website has not provided you with enough information, you can reach out to the admissions office or a local representative.

DOs & DON’Ts:

• Show, don't tell.

• Connect the essay to YOU.

• Don't be generic or vague. Be specific.

• Don't focus on the school's location, reputation, or ranking.

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Students often come to me and say, “I’m not a very good writer.”

My answer to both is the same:

It doesn’t matter! It’s academic writing!

Academic writing is a technical skill.

As a technical skill, academic writing’s purpose is to present arguments, discuss research findings, and contribute to scholarly discourse in the form of research papers, theses, dissertations, journal articles, and essays.

The acquisition and development of technical skills generally follow a process, often described in stages or phases. In this case, we use the Steps in the Writing RIGHTING Process:

In addition to the steps, we use the alliteration of Communicate. Navigate. Punctuate.® to help students remember the three most important components of writing: content, organization, and mechanics.

Q: Why throw in the Pareto Principle?

A: In my experience, students will open a document and stare at the blank page for upwards of 10-30 minutes, unsure where to begin. College freshmen can expect to write an average of 92 pages of essays; even on the low end, that’s a lot of unpaid hours with no return on investment. The Pareto Principle, A.K.A. The 80/20 Rule, helps students to maximize their results with minimal effort.

Developing a technical skill is not a one-and-done exercise, but rather an ongoing pursuit of learning, practicing, receiving feedback, reflecting, and applying knowledge to solve problems. It’s not enough to watch the attached video and say, voilà, I got this; students (especially the students who are comfortable with writing) may feel pushed out of their comfort zone. Other students (especially those who don’t typically describe themselves as someone who writes things for fun) will be super relieved to be handed a formula.

We’re building a bridge between High School AP English Lit and Rhetoric 101, and we’re starting with the college application essay, because college! What if you get in? 😜

Coding, data analysis, and operating machinery are all examples of technical skills.

The people who deploy these technical skills aren’t born with these innate abilities.

Students rarely come to me and say, “I’m not a good pilot.” Either they’ve learned how to operate aircraft, or they haven’t, but they don’t consider themselves “bad at flying” if they haven’t even tried to learn it. Same with coding.

The thing about academic writing is that students don’t really do a deep-dive into speech, communications, and rhetoric until college — but first, they have to get in!

pilots study and train for years to move the flying public around the world in jumbo jets. Technical skills are learned.

, and photographers don’t wake up one morning with innate talents to expose images on manual mode with a 1948 Hasselblad 1600F.

Below are resources for students and parents. All ESSAY CURE students have access to extensive ArborBridge evaluation and tailored tutoring resources to help students achieve their best possible score.

Act : Sat Concordance

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Timelines For Preparing For The Sat Or Act

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Step 2: PREWRITING

Five Whys

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Start With Why

Prewriting is a tool to transfer ideas and abstract thoughts into words, phrases, and sentences on paper.

There are numerous prewriting techniques, including:

• Freewriting

• Outlining

• Brainstorming

• Idea mapping

• 5WH$ (who what where when why how + how much $)

In this workshop, we focus on “freewriting” because it’s the easiest, fast…

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But first. Let’s talk about the side of college that nobody in the halls of your high school is talking about:

Nobody’s coming.

As a college freshman, if you sleep through your …

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• Why YOU?
  This essay is about you and your fit with the college, NOT a list of the college’s great attributes.

• Show, Don't Tell:
  Use specific examples to illustrate your points.

• Be Genuine:
  Q: How do admissions officers spot insincerity in “Why Us?” essays?

  A: Because your competition has already shown them sincerity. There are students out there who want…

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"To break a mental model is harder than splitting the atom." —Albert Einstein

✅ Try anyway.

To break the mental model of “sitting down to write a rough draft,” we must first unlearn the muscle memory you’ve developed in high school. Those of you who enjoy writing and/or those of you who have been successful in pulling off writing assignments at the 11th h…

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I come from _____.

Don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Just write.

Go!

I completed this exercise during a workshop for college counselors in San Diego last month.

Here’s what I wrote:

I come from: Swedish cinnamon rolls and homemade donuts; Colorado’s San Juan Mountains; a pa…

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(Hopefully, this is also how I help my students to see themselves! I have yet to meet a student who doesn’t have something interesting and unique about their personality and/or experience that the world wants to see.)

This is what we want to avoid admissions officers seeing:

Admissions officers spend, on average, 5-15 minutes reviewing a student’s application. They aren’t afforded the luxury of time to get to know student applicants personally in the way teachers and counselors are. This forces admissions officers to piece together a number of data points to form a picture of applicants; they’re looking for spark, color, and definition assembled in a shockingly quick package.

That’s why we spend so much time on the front end of your applications.

Sometimes in the beginning, students will ask, “When do we get to work on the essays?”

We are working on the essays. This prep work is critical to your essays. How do I know? I’ve been doing this work since 2017 and professionally since 2019. I’ve seen your competition, and the competition is fierce. At times, this process may seem grueling, so please trust me when I tell you I can draw a direct line from the students who put in the most time and effort during the summer to the students who emerge next spring most successful in this process.

The point of these summer workshops is to break college applications into bite-sized pieces for students during the summer, so that when school starts and there’s Homecoming and AP classes and Halloween, all the things, the crushing weight of college applications doesn’t bog students down.

Our goal this summer is to start assembling all of those puzzle pieces so that admissions officers get a vivid and concise glimpse of who you are as an applicant.

These are the missing pieces:

• Academic Record

• Recomendations (LORs)

• Activities & Honors (Common App)

• Personal Statement

• Additional Information

• Demonstrated Interest

• Financial Aid

Activities and honors begin with the Student Activity Sheet, which organizes where you spend your time to take full advantage of the “activities” and “honors” sections in your Common App.

In addition, this sheet serves as a complete and accurate record of where you spend your time outside of class. This will help guide the teachers who are writing you letters of recommendation (LORs.)

(Remember, you should ask teachers from junior year core subjects who know you well to write these LORs.)

Letters of recommendation (LORs) speak to how your high school sees you. What does your high school think of you as a student? The three things that I remind students to show their high school teachers daily are humility, teachability, and curiosity.

Your academic record consists of your grades and what’s also known as your “high school profile.” A high school profile is a document that provides college admissions officers with a comprehensive overview of a high school, including its academic programs, grading system, and overall culture. It helps admissions officers understand the context of a student’s academic record and make more informed decisions. What was available to you? What did you choose to take? Does that align with your goals and your abilities? If you want to study engineering and AP Calc was offered, and you didn’t take it, why not?

A personal statement is a written essay that provides a detailed overview of your background, experiences, skills, and aspirations, often used in academic or professional applications. It’s an opportunity to showcase your unique qualities and explain why you’re a good fit for a specific program or position. It tells admissions officers something about you that they can’t find in your transcripts, LORs, or high school profile.

Demonstrated interest (if applicable) in college admissions refers to how prospective students show a college or university that they are genuinely interested in attending, beyond simply submitting an application. It’s a factor some institutions consider when making admissions decisions, as it can indicate a higher likelihood of enrollment. As a general rule, the more highly selective the college or university, the less likely they are to track demonstrated interest.

Some colleges consider financial need when making admissions decisions (need-aware), while others do not (need-blind). For those that are “need-aware,” a student's financial situation may affect their chances of acceptance, particularly if they require significant financial aid. Many colleges are “need-blind,” meaning they evaluate applications without considering a student’s financial need.

Go to https://www.commonapp.org/ to create your Common App account.

The second tab says “my colleges,” and then the radio button “add a college” is where you can start putting in your list of colleges. It's that simple.

The third tab over is called the Common App tab; this is kind of the whole point of the Common App is so that you don't have to type all of this information in at twenty different portals, you can just put it all into this one portal and send it to the schools that are participating.

Your profile is your personal information. There's information on your family, education, testing, and then “activities.” This is where you’ll leverage the information we carefully culled and refined this summer in your Student Activity Sheet. You can only add 10 activities using 150 characters; making your activities jump off the page in 150 characters takes some doing, and it’s really hard for students to focus on this once school starts in the fall.

The Common App is getting a visual refresh for the 2025-2026 application cycle, with updates launching on August 1, 2025. This refresh includes a new user interface, with changes like a left-hand navigation panel and updated menu items. The “Common App” tab will be renamed “My Common Application.” Despite these changes, the core functionality and application process will remain the same.

Students can get started on the first page of their Student Activity Sheet immediately. Begin adding all of your activities from your freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Then add what you can reasonably expect to participate in during your senior year. Don’t agonize over word count — we’ll polish that later.

Please don’t start on the second page until your first page is finalized, or you’ll end up making the process messier for yourself than it needs to be. The headings on the second page are pulled directly from the Common App, where you will categorize your 10 activities.

Run your eyes over these topics because if you see something that interests you where you don’t have an activity, you still have this whole summer to get out there and do something!

Ideally, go do something that focuses on a leadership opportunity within the places where you are already involved.

It’s okay to share this document with your parents. Sometimes parents can remember activities that you’ve forgotten you were involved in.

Remember, in building your college list, we’re looking for a good academic, social, and financial fit for you and your family. I’d like for your list to be balanced somewhere in the ratio of three likelies, five targets, and one or maybe two unlikelies.

Here are some books and resources on the internet that can help you build your list. As a general guideline, July is for finalizing your list, and August is for writing essays. Use your DISC assessment and WCIDWTM? to explore careers.

No webinar, no office hours next week; get your Common App account started, work on your list, and fill in activities on your Student Activity Sheet. We'll resume Sunday webinars again in July.

College is happening, and it’s happening fast. Some of you will have October deadlines, which gives you just over three months to get this wrapped up. Do as much work as you can this week and next so you’ll be ready to roll up your sleeves and dig into your essays in July and August.

What Can I Do With This Major? is a website featuring 106 major profiles with information on common career paths, types of employers that hire in the field, and strategies to maximize opportunities. Links to professional associations, occupational outlook information, and job search resources are included.

The University of Tennessee’s Center produces this resource for Career Development & Academic Exploration, and rights to access it are sold through a subscription.

College App Help Desk VIP Subscribers have access to this tremendous resource and more! VIP Subscribers use this website to explore the career options listed in the last section of their Maxwell DISC Student/Career Report.

Subscribe now

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The whole college application process is about students getting comfortable with selling themselves in their application as if it were an interview. What makes a student so compelling, noteworthy, and impressive that admissions officers become advocates to get you onto their campus?

The Maxwell DISC Student/Career assessment results help students do just that. Instead of students having to draw from the depths of their souls to uncover all of these details about their strengths and interests, we take it straight from this assessment. Students are often surprised to learn from their assessment that not everyone has the talents that come so easily to them.

| Sample Maxwell Disc Student Career Report

508KB ∙ PDF file

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In building a list, students can use this guide to get started: three likelies, five targets, and 1 (maybe 2! It depends on the student) unlikely.

Research is step three in the process of academic writing, but in the college application process, we do this step first because students can't write essays until they’ve identified which schools they will apply to.

Remember, there is no such thing as a “safety” school.

Students should diversify their lists to be successful in this process by using numbers from the Common Data Set to identify schools that would be a good fit socially, emotionally, academically, and financially.

High School diploma or GED

Associate’s degree = 2 years

Bachelor’s degree = 4 years

Master’s degree = advanced (graduate) degree

Doctoral (or PhD) degree = the highest (graduate) academic degree awarded by universities

Q: What’s the difference between a college and a university?

A: Universities have undergraduate and graduate degrees. Universities generally offer a wider array of academic disciplines and specializations and tend to focus on research. Universities might have more rigorous admission requirements than colleges.

Typically, universities include multiple colleges and schools, which can sometimes confuse students. A university may have, for example, a “college of business” which is a smaller college within the larger university that focuses solely on the education of undergraduate students.

A: Colleges tend to focus on undergraduate degrees and typically offer smaller, more intimate classes. Colleges prioritize a more holistic approach to admissions, so they're going to consider things about you beyond just your academic achievements.

In casual conversation, “college” can be used to refer to any post-secondary institution, including both colleges and universities. However, “university” is a more specific term referring to institutions with graduate programs.

Q: What should I consider when building my list?

A: Degree Programs = universities offer bachelor’s master’s, doctoral, & professional degrees (like law or medicine); colleges tend to focus on undergraduate degrees & may even offer associate’s degrees

Size & Structure = large institutions vs. more intimate classes

Research & Scholarship = universities often have strong emphasis on research

Flexibility & Specialization = universities may offer wider array of academic disciplines and specializations; colleges may be more focused on a specific area or have fewer specializations

Admission Requirements = universities may have more rigorous admission requirements than colleges; colleges often prioritize a more holistic approach to admissions, considering various factors beyond academic achievements.

Q: What are some of the types of colleges I should research?

A: Research Universities = tremendous focus on research & brand name

Regional Universities = do not focus on research, may not offer PhD

Liberal Arts Colleges = private, typically focused on undergraduates

Jesuit Colleges = 28 nationwide committed to academic excellence, service, leadership, & caring for the whole person

Specialty Colleges = focus on one area of expertise such as art, music, business, or engineering

Colleges That Change Lives = smaller, liberal arts colleges that focus on educating undergraduates with collaborative learning approach

Ivy League = 8 private colleges located in the Northeast with need-based financial aid policies that use “institutional methodology” to determine need; middle-income families are surprised by the generous financial aid offers from these schools. These are some of the most competitive colleges in the world.

In-State = tuition rate offered to students who are residents of the state where the college or university is located is lower

Out-of-State = students who live outside the state where the college or university is located typically pay a higher tuition rate because they haven’t contributed to the state’s tax revenue that helps fund the institution

Private = not funded by tax dollars, so do not differentiate between in-state & out-of-state students

Specialty Colleges = focus on one area of expertise such as art, music, business, or engineering

Colleges That Change Lives = smaller, liberal arts colleges that focus on educating undergraduates with a collaborative learning approach

Q: What is the Common Data Set?

A: The Common Data Set is a standardized set of questions & definitions used by higher education institutions to collect information for college guidebooks & other publications. Its purpose is to make it easier to compare institutions & find the right fit for students by comparing content such as general information, enrollment, admissions, academic programs, student life, expenses, and financial aid.

College guidebooks, U.S. News & World Report, and the College Board all use the Common Data Set. It’s developed and reviewed by experts, data providers, & feedback from users. This improves the accuracy and comparability of data and provides a more comprehensive view of higher education for students and parents.

Q: How do I find the Common Data Set?

A: Google = the easiest way to find a college’s CDS is to simply Google the institution’s name along with “Common Data Set” — for example, searching “Harvard Common Data Set” should lead you to the document

College or University Website = Most colleges and universities publish their Common Data Set on their official website, typically within the “Institutional Research” or data section

CDS Repository = Websites like the College Transitions Common Data Set Repository may have archives of previous years’ CDS documents for numerous institutions

IECs = high school counselors or educational consultants

Students may have access to SCOIR or Naviance through their high schools, and Common Data Set information will be available there. Students can also find this information at collegedata.com, niche.com, and collegeboard.org.

Here are some resources to help students get started in this process:

Use Big Future to explore colleges

College Vine: All Colleges

The College Admissions Process Podcast

College Confidential

Relevant podcast episodes: Inside the Yale Admissions Office and Admissions Beat from Dartmouth

What they’re looking for: MIT, UVA, CalTech, Georgia Tech

Worried about tuition? Here’s a simplified college cost estimator.

Find scholarships & grants: Unigo.com

A unique way to search for schools: College Express

One-stop shop: College Data

Virtual experience Platform: YouVisit

A: Yep. It’s the Maxwell DISC Student/Career Assessment, and I’m a certified Behavioral Analysis Trainer and Consultant. It’s a strength finder. What are your interests? What are your strengths? What are your talents? And what are the career options that those strengths, talents, and interests best serve? This is where I start to help students identify the answers buried within them. —Christine Gacharná

The Maxwell DISC Student/Career Personality Indicator Report is one of many tools we use to help students.

There are six different sections of this assessment, but the last two sections I don't use with my high school students so much. Sections five and six are more appropriate for students once they are in college or maybe even after college, later in life. I find an action plan, and the next step is just too much of a leap for students whose long game can’t easily stretch past the next 12 months of transition, getting through AP classes, college applications, senior prom, graduation, etc.

Whether a student’s future plans after high school include enlisted, enrolled, or employed, the first four sections of this assessment are helpful because no matter the plan, learning and/or training will likely be involved. Those sections cover:

• communication style

• value style

• learning & thinking style

• the careers they best serve

A construction foreman would not be the best career choice for a student who doesn't want to manage people. Could a student do that job if it’s not on the list? Yes. She would have to strengthen some skills to be good at that work, but absolutely, she could do that.

The communication section is important for college applicants because of the essays required. If a student is not communicating what s/he is trying to say, then the message won’t be received. As if that weren’t bad enough, we don't know who the reader will be; not knowing the reader means not knowing what a reader’s filters may be. Students can’t risk alienating or offending readers in their college application essays.

Of course, it’s also incredibly helpful in their essay writing work (in high school and college) but also in communicating with others — friends, teachers, parents, coaches, peers, adults, admissions officers, the list is endless.

My job is to teach students not only how to communicate but also how to communicate with others who may operate differently.

The values section is invaluable to students; instead of students having to draw from the depths of their souls to spit out values that can be woven into a personal statement, they can steal it straight from this personal assessment.

As students review the assessment, they are able to discern, “Yes, wow, that's exactly me. They got me right.” For students who need to write an essay, this gets them talking about something they already agree with, making the writing easier. For students looking for their next step, knowing and understanding their values can narrow choices in ways that help them hone in on their interests and calling.

Learning styles and thinking styles can be put to use right away. High school students can use this knowledge to their advantage during their senior year, but this information can also be used in college, graduate school, the workforce, or during military training and service.

The last section takes the student’s interests and talents into consideration and compiles a list of careers that would best serve this personality type. This is helpful for students who aren’t quite sure what they want to do; it gives them a starting point for careers they can possibly shadow to learn more about.

Whether a high school student chooses to be enlisted, enrolled, or employed after their senior year, the Maxwell DISC Student/Career assessment can help.

Download a sample Student/Career assessment report (ages 16+):

| Sample Maxwell Disc Student Career Report

508KB ∙ PDF file

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Download a sample Student Success assessment report (ages 10-15):

| Sample Maxwell Disc Student Success Report

1.24MB ∙ PDF file

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Download

Download a Quick-Tip Guide for parents:

| Maxwell Disc Parent Quick Tips

949KB ∙ PDF file

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Kirkus Reviews called RIGHT My College Application Essay “A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.”

From the author: Back when reading news on paper was still a thing, I was the editor-in-chief of my campus newspaper. I’m an award winning writer and photographer, my work has appeared everywhere from local newspapers to Time magazine (twice!) Editors call me a “two-for” because it doesn't matter if you hand me a camera or a keyboard, I'm a master communicator. I know this stuff backward and forward, inside-out and upside-down.

I taught English in Tokyo for three years and for six years, I taught undergraduate COMM & English courses. I was promoted to Lead Faculty for Communication and responsible for streamlining the teaching and evaluation of student writing.

It was during my time teaching academic writing to undergraduates that my own two kids were going through the process that you’re going through now. So between my kids, my friends’ kids, and my kids’ friends, I was up to my elbows in college application essays. And what I saw was that they were all making the same mistakes, and it all boiled down to high schoolers not really understanding the backbone of academic writing at the undergraduate level.

And that’s when I had my ah-ha moment and created the instruction that led to this book.

For many students, writing the essay is the most daunting task in the college application process — & for good reason! They’ve spent most of their academic lives in one rhetorical mode, and the college application essay is their first experience wresting an unfamiliar method of communication.

In my experience teaching college essay writing, lots of students admit to spending at LEAST 10 minutes staring at the blank page before starting the assignment. Many admit to spending 30 minutes or more.

The reason students sit paralyzed in front of the blank page is because they aren’t confident using the steps in the process. They think it’s about the writing, so they sit there, staring, wondering how to create something that “sounds good.”

Communicate. Navigate. Punctuate.^© is the trademark of this instruction. We use alliteration to help students learn and remember the process so they can 1) unlearn bad habits developed by getting by in high school and 2) develop new muscle memory around using the steps in the RIGHTING process which incorporates the tools professional writers use plus the three most important components of writing.

Forget about being labeled as a “good writer” or a “bad writer” in high school — it doesn’t matter! This isn’t an application for an MFA in creative non-fiction. This is a college application essay. This is undergraduate academic writing.

Academic writing follows formulas and is evaluated by measurable goals. Once students learn to use the tools, the emphasis returns to where it will need to be in college — absorbing and understanding new and complex concepts and ideas and being able to communicate those ideas back to professors in the form of an academic essay that will be graded and will factor into large portions of their undergraduate grades.

We demystify academic writing and we start with the the college application essay, so while students are getting this college application monkey off their back, they’re leveling-up their writing skills to compete and succeed at an undergraduate level.

A "Workable, Workbook" available for College Planning, Pivotal College Planning Workbook is a simplistic, step-by-step method to plan a student’s college journey with confidence.

Authors Shelley Honeycutt & Tom O’Hare worked in collaboration with some of the top college planners in New England to create this workbook. Although these experts serve students nationally and internationally, they share their methods, techniques, and experience, which can be used by students anywhere. The workbook is filled with organizational charts, activities, questionnaires, and examples. The workbook also offers additional support via its YouTube Channel and other online sources.

Author Tom O’Hare has dedicated many hours to advising students via College App Help Desk and is a vetted and trusted ESSAY CURE partner.

College Vine: All Colleges

The College Admissions Process Podcast

Relevant podcast episodes: Inside the Yale Admissions Office and Admissions Beat from Dartmouth

What they’re looking for: MIT, UVA, CalTech, Georgia Tech

Worried about tuition? Here’s a simplified college cost estimator.

More books that College App Help Desk contributors have found useful for students:

Students and parents should swap “rankings” for the Fiske Guide to Colleges and focus on the details of a particular school that makes it a good fit for a student.

Former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske tells stories about schools, including quotes from real students and information you won't find on college websites.

Sending a teenager to a flagship state university for four years of on-campus living costs more than $100,000 in many parts of the United States. Meanwhile, many families of freshmen attending selective private colleges will spend triple—over $300,000. With the same passion, smarts, and humor that infuse his personal finance column, Ron Lieber offers a much-needed roadmap to help families navigate this difficult and often confusing journey.

[Editor’s note: Look — I wrote a book on how to write a college application essay, and I still found this book super engaging and informative!]

On average, an admissions committee takes seconds to decide whether to admit a student. They must sum up the student in one sentence that will tell them if a student is going to be a good fit for their program. This book shows students how to crack the code.

Full disclosure, I haven’t finished reading this book yet, but I attended a webinar to listen to the author speak and I was impressed by her background and motivations for writing this book. As a writer myself, I love it when an author presents a premise and supports it well — even if I don’t agree with the premise!

In this case, I agree with the author’s premise that many of us buy into the idea that we are either innately good at math or we’re not—but that’s not true.

Numeracy is as important as literacy when it comes to opening doors in life.

September 9, 2025: Jeffrey Selingo is no stranger to the college admissions discussion, and I always enjoy listening to what he has to say. In Dream School, Mr. Selingo shifts the spotlight from how colleges pick students to how students can better pick colleges.

Dream School reveals what really matters in a college: strong job prospects after graduation, hands-on learning experiences, and a sense of belonging.

William E. Sedlacek is the nation's leading authority on noncognitive assessment; he challenges the use of the SAT and other standardized tests as the sole assessment tool for college and university admissions.

In Beyond the Big Test, Sedlacek presents a noncognitive assessment method that can be used alongside standardized tests to measure what students know by evaluating what they can do and how they handle a wide range of problems across different contexts.

Educators have used his innovative method to:
• Select a class diverse on dimensions of race, gender, and culture in a practical, legal, and ethical way
• Teach a diverse class employing techniques that reach all students
• Counsel and advise students in ways that consider their culture, race, and gender
• Award financial aid to students with potential who do not necessarily have the highest grades and test scores
• Assess the readiness of an institution to educate and provide services for a diverse student body

V. Peter Pitts, “the Small College guy” has gone web surfing---looking for more cool and unique programs at 333 affordable small colleges.

I call this the alphabet soup of the college application process.

Some of these acronyms, you’re already familiar with. This is the sexy side of the process. This is where most parents and students start with these lofty ideas of highly selective schools. And that’s great, we can start here because this is what gets everybody excited; this is what draws everybody in.

College is one of the largest investments that most people will make in their lifetime (along with purchasing a home, raising children, and saving for retirement,) but we don’t shop for colleges the way we shop for other things.

Think about it: When we buy a car, do we go straight to the Maserati dealership and look for something to put our tools in the trunk if we’re general contractors? Not really. And most parents don't take their 16-year-old learning how to drive to the Maserati dealership and say, “Hey, which one would be really exciting for you?”

(I’m sure those parents are out there, but I haven’t met any of them.)

We don’t do it when we shop for a car, and we certainly don’t do it when we shop for a house. In fact, our realtors won’t even take us to see the $4.5M if our pre-approval letter goes up to $900,000.

When we invest our money to save for retirement, our first concern is “diversification.” Yet this word never gets thrown out by parents in initial college search conversations.

I’d like for parents (and students) to consider the things in these presentations as part of figuring out what would be a good fit college instead of just listing sexy, highly-selective schools on a student’s list.

10 Step Guide To Navigating College Apps 07

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